Toy packaging is often criticised for being wasteful and unkind to the environment. However, Lego has changed that this year. LEGO has launched a sustainable advent calendar ahead of Christmas, which aims to save around a million plastic trays from landfills this year.
Children can now enjoy their advent calendars well beyond December 25th thanks to the LEGO Group, which has released its 2017 series featuring sustainable paper pulp trays inside the box.
The brand has created a short film that inspires children (and adults alike) to repurpose their new sustainable tray into something entirely different – allowing it to live on beyond the holiday season (link to film). This move from the toy manufacturer, plays on a child’s preoccupation with often enjoying the wrapping paper and packaging just as much as their presents and provides an opportunity for them to get creative during the festivities.
The LEGO advent calendars are available in three themes: LEGO® City, LEGO® Friends and LEGO® Star WarsTM. The calendars contain a small LEGO model in each of the 24 compartments of the tray, for each day leading up to Christmas from December 1st. The new trays are a replacement for non-recyclable black plastic trays, saving more than a million plastic trays from going to landfills.
“We design LEGO products to last for generations, but we recognize that much of our packaging will be thrown away. We want to give kids and parents every opportunity to recycle, and we are pleased that this Christmas millions of children will be able to recycle the trays and boxes of their advent calendar,” says Tim Brooks, Vice President, Environmental Responsibility.
The short film demonstrates how the paper tray can easily be reused by bringing to life how to create a Christmas scene leaving Mum and Dad uninterrupted time to attend to the turkey.
How to Create a Christmas Penguin from your LEGO Advent Calendar
Step 1: Open your LEGO advent calendar
Step 2: Take out the sustainable tray
Step 3: Cut off cup using a pair of scissors
Step 4: Remove base of cup by cutting around with a pair of scissors
Step 5: Draw a chest shape on one side of the cup using a pencil
Step 6: Take some black paint
Step 7: Paint cup black on all sides, apart from the chest shape you have drawn out.
Step 8: Take some orange felt
Step 9: Draw out a triangle beak and jagged feet
Step 10: Cut out the beak and feet
Step 11: Take some googly eyes and stick on black part of cup on top of white chest
Step 12: Stick on the orange triangular nose just below the eyes
Step 13: Glue on the feet to the inside of the bottom of the cup, so feet stick out.
Step 14: Voila!
Uses for the paper tray go far beyond just creating fun holiday characters. Children can also use the paper pulp tray to grow plants. The compartments in the tray are ideal to fill with soil to germinate a seedling which children can later plant in a garden, and make a positive impact on the environment.
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